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How to Lose Your Cool and Alienate Context

By Jonathan Goldsbie


Red Eye is a 2005 thriller directed by Wes Craven and starring Rachel McAdams and Cillian Murphy. Enough people know this, and few would mistake it for a docudrama.
Red Eye is also a Fox News Channel comedy talk show that airs weekdays at 3:00 a.m. Not enough people know this, and many, it seems, would mistake it for, well, not news but whatever it is that FNC is best known for trafficking in. Of course, the fact that the show isn’t actually funny doesn’t help. Nor does the fact that its deliberate attempts at comedy are largely indistinguishable from other Fox shows’ unintentional ones.
But this context—or at least the effort required to look it up on Wikipedia—would have saved a lot of Canadians a lot of stress in the past week, as the response to the segment about the Canadian military needing a year-long break following its 2011 withdrawal from Afghanistan has built into a genuine, if poorly informed, uproar. Yes, it was ignorant and offensive, but Greg Gutfeld and his zoo crew were trying to be dumb-funny, more a failed attempt at Howard Stern than Rush Limbaugh. Which doesn’t make it okay, it just doesn’t make it worth getting your knickers in a knot about. As far as things said on Fox News go, it’s relatively harmless; we’re more terrified of Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity and the viewers of those shows who themselves can’t recognize the difference between news and entertainment.
Red Eye is cheap-to-produce late-night filler. No one watches, no one cares. So you needn’t click play on the video embedded above. It’s only provided for context.

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Comments

  • http://null panko

    Finally a level-headed perspective. A few ignorant nobodies stumble into territory they have no knowledge of (“I didn’t even know Canada was in Afghanistan”), make some boneheaded comments on a 3am shit show watched by another handful of nobodies. Big deal.

  • http://null yokes

    No shit, eh? We Canadians sure like to dish it out, but god help the American bastard who tries to poke fun at us. Canadian inferiority complex in full effect.

  • http://null Rachel Lissner

    Red Eye is also a really great espresso drink that is sometimes called a Canadiano. (You can get it at Hot Shot in Kensington.)

  • http://www.torontoist.com David Topping

    (This video doesn’t even change my thinking that Doug Benson—the guy who got the last word—is a really funny guy.)

  • http://www.bitpicture.com Marc Lostracco

    These are the same douchebag hicks who had some pretty ignorant and despicable things to say about the transgendered pregnant man back in April.

  • http://wesshepherdphotographers.com wesshepherd

    Good take on a stupid situation. Ignorant and offensive sums it up, but taking it seriously is just a waste of time and energy.
    Then again, some people are in the pro-leagues when it comes to taking offense or seeing themselves as victims.

  • http://www.bitpicture.com Marc Lostracco

    The problem is that there is an enormous subset of Americans who do take stuff like this at face value, and because they see it on the cullur teevee, it gives credence to their ignorance.

  • http://undefined Alogon

    I would agree with your comment if it were someone poking fun at maple syrup or french accented goalies but this was beyond the pale. The people risking their lives in Afghanistan are a part of a NATO mission initiated due to an attack on the U.S. For these jerks to be disrespecting the Canadians in the firing line is sickening.
    Imagine if CTV news or Global had a talking head on who started spouting off about the lameness of the U.S. army? Started in on them for being unable to take a country like Iraq they have been bombing for almost 20 years or called them a bunch of whiny pansies because they lost in ‘Nam. Or if it was said that they relied on the armies of the rest of the world to fight the real battles since they joined both world wars so damn late after most of the heavy lifting was done. Or said anything that might hurt the feelings of families waiting at the airport for their dead children to come home in flag draped coffins?
    I am so sick of the U.S. thinking they are the most powerful army in the world. What wars did they win? They haven’t won a fight on their own against any developed nation. They are great picking on 3rd world banana republics.
    And in case anyone tries to drag out the tired argument that the U.S. army that was the deciding factor in WW2; thank the Russians for Germany’s defeat since they were army that turned the tide.

  • http://null DanL

    It is also very important to remember who Doug Benson is when you listen to his comments. He is a comedian who’s credentials include the documentary “Super High Me” in which he set out to find out what effect if any smoking marijuana for 30 days straight would have on him. His other very important part of his CV is the honor of being named the 2006 High Times Stoner of the Year…ya, I’d really be worried about his being informed about and opinion on the current international situation between the USA and its allies.

  • http://null Robsonian

    Sir-
    I’ll give you ‘O’Reilly and Hannity are worse.’
    But I’ll also give Lostracco ‘douchebag hicks. and credence to their ignorance.’
    my knickers remain untwisted for now, because I understood that the comment was made in a certain pseudo-news/comedy context.
    Nowhere else in the developed world put such a premium on ignorance, nowhere else regards intellect and education with such ingrained skepticism.

  • http://undefined Ken Hunt

    Good to see someone weigh in on the side of sensibility. This whole thing was best ignored. Instead, this “controversy” is the best thing to happen to Red Eye in a long, long time. Now a few more people know that it is on the air.
    Red Eye is hoping to outrage. They want to provoke a reaction. They want to get noticed. This isn’t news, it’s open-mike night. The fact that it happens to be on a “news” channel is almost beside the point.
    In summary: Stop feeding the trolls. It only encourages them.

  • http://undefined rek

    Hear hear.

  • http://null dowlingm

    I say go after Faux News on all fronts and with all available means. In any case, comedy doesn’t belong on a news network – I’m uncomfortable with The Hour being on Newsworld never mind these fools.
    It’s all a bit of fun? Okay – show me the footage of comparable jokes made by Red Eye about US service members and I’ll back off.

  • http://undefined PickleToes

    Wow, Fox is almost as terrible as the CBC!

  • http://www.publicspace.ca Jonathan Goldsbie

    I’ve come to regret not doing this article a few days ago, in order to put the clip in context before the reaction to it got out of hand and even Gawker was mocking Canadians’ ignorantly inflated assessment of Gutfeld’s stature. I just figured it was a blip that would go away on its own and didn’t merit paying attention to. The first time I followed a link to the video, I got ten seconds in, saw it was Red Eye (which I recalled Stewart or Colbert having once derided as being irrelevant and fringe-y even as far as Fox News goes), and closed it, because life is too short to be paying attention to every stupid thing uttered by minor Fox commentators. I didn’t count on the Conservatives using it as an excuse to take the focus off Galloway.

  • http://null rek

    Sometimes you try too hard.

  • http://www.publicspace.ca Jonathan Goldsbie

    So I just got around to looking at the profile of the YouTube user who uploaded the video and, uh, holy shit.

  • http://null PickleToes

    You deserve all the effort I could possibly muster.